September ranked as Melbourne's second-wettest month ever recorded — barely trailing August 2008 when Tropical Storm Fay struck, said Tony Cristaldi, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station at Orlando Melbourne International Airport.

Fueled by Hurricane Irma, Melbourne absorbed 20.94 inches of rain in September. In August 2008, Melbourne received 21.06 inches of rain, Cristaldi said. So September's total only fell 0.12 inches shy of that record mark.

For perspective's sake, Melbourne NWS records date to 1937.

"We started off the first day of October with 5.23 inches of rain in Melbourne. And then a couple of other days, we've had half to three-quarters of an inch. So we really, really need the dry season to come about the last week of October," Cristaldi said.

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office obstacle course and gun range were still flooded Sunday, almost a week after heavy rains fell on Brevard County(Photo: Riley Shortt)

"Conditions are very, very saturated. There's quite a number of areas still with standing water. The St. Johns River — all along its course through east-central Florida, including Brevard County — is at or above flood stage. That river is very slow to react, to both rain and to dry spells," he said.

The soggy September kicked off with a Sept. 2 record daily rainfall of 4.62 inches. Then Irma's squalls dumped an all-time benchmark of 10.23 inches on Sept. 10 — the all-time daily maximum rainfall amount ever recorded in Melbourne. The previous record for that date was 1.23 inches, last set in 1992.

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office obstacle course and gun range were still flooded Sunday, almost a week after heavy rains fell on Brevard County(Photo: Riley Shortt)

September's rainfall total finished 13.30 inches above normal for that month, breaking the previous record of 19.68 inches set in September 1948.

What's more, the monthly average temperature of 82.4 degrees in Melbourne tied the record for the month of September. That mark is 1.8 degrees above normal, and it matched the previous record set in September 2007.

To the north, Titusville recorded 16.03 inches of rain during September, which tied 1929 as the sixth-wettest September. Records there go back to 1901.

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638, rneale@floridatoday.com or follow @RickNeale1 on Twitter.